The Morning Glorious

Gardening By the Seat of My Pants.

Showing posts with label corn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corn. Show all posts

Weeding, seeding, and the view from the air!

With the weather finally warm enough to set things out (that have of course been properly hardened off), I decided to hurry up and get some stuff in the ground before I whisk off to California for a few days.

That required some heavy-duty weeding action first.  I probably weeded for a solid hour, and it still needs work, but I don't feel bad showing pictures now.

First thing - and no weeding required - the strawberries are starting to poke their heads out.  I'm not sure if I'll actually get fruit this year - but I'm optimistic.


All of my brussels but two disappeared - I'm not really sure where they went...and the two that are still there are pretty pitiful looking.  So I caved in and got some young plants the other day.  C. really likes brussels, so I really want to have some to feed her at some point before the frost. ;)


I also got some of my seedlings for the three-sisters area put into the ground - three of the corn stalks are big enough and two of the luffa plants:


(there are peas seeded in between the corn stalks - so as the corn grows, the peas will vine right up it (in theory))


And then, of course, the luffa will get big and sprawly and keep the weeds out of the corn/peas' roots.  If I were doing it right, I apparently would have put dead fish in both of these mounds, but...I didn't.

I also put the big-enough-cuke plant in.  It's a little shocked from transplant, but it'll perk up in a few hours:

In a few weeks, you won't recognize it, it'll be climbing up its trellis like crazy.

Here's a shot through the cuke trellis - I won't be able to do this for very much longer:


You can see that I still need to weed more, but there are chard, beets, carrots, spinach, some lettuces, broccoli, garlic, basil, onions and tomatoes out there.  The other day I seeded in my Paris Market Carrots (by the tomato plants) and some Lisbon Bunching Onions as well - they'll be poking their heads out soon.


And last, the view from the air.  It's been really weird to work around my landlady's trees.  Some of them desperately need to be pruned and I might help her out with that a little while she's in Italy.  The shadiest part of the garden has the greens, beets, and carrots in it.  The next sunniest has the tomato patch (with more carrots, onions, and basil) and soon will have pumpkins.  The sunny side will have the melon patch - and you can see the circular places where the mounds for the three-sisters area are being put in place. 

Closure.

Last year's garden ended in me having to leave it. I have no idea how/if the harvest came out, but here are some phone pictures from before I had to leave:

This is the Mexican Sweet Gherkin (started indoor from seed) as of 7/28/09:

In flower on 8/23:                                                             In fruit on 9/3:


Boston Pickling Cucumbers (bought as a plant from Home Depot) on 8/11:

Tassels on the corn in my 3-sisters area on 8/23:

Amish Paste Tomatoes on 9/3:

Ripe Beets on 9/3:
Going Gangbusters on 9/3:
Tassels on the corn! All sorts of stuff going crazy through the screen on an upstairs window.

How I threw my back out...or...the garden is done!

I took this picture on Friday-- so a week ago-- and some of you may have seen it already, but this is how my garden looked at that time:


Click for large and legible version.

It feels good to have gotten all the veggies in and I'm so excited about my three-sisters area. I'm sort of following this guide here.

Basically you plant corn and when the corn is 6 inches high, you plant peas or beans which climb up the corn and bind nitrogen into the soil. Then you plant a vine crop like a squash or a melon which shades the roots and helps keep the weeds down. Genius.

So I have corn, sugar snap peas, and then I'm going to do one mound of melon and two mounds of spaghetti squash.

After the week I had-- Monday and Tuesday clearing the ground and fenceline, Wednesday roto-tilling and sifting the soil (with help from Dougie and Anastasia), Thursday hauling three pick up trucks' worth of yard waste and logs by myself (but I got to use the new chainsaw!!), and then Friday planting it all...plus shooting 2 long weddings Friday and Saturday...when I bent down to tie my shoes on Sunday, I couldn't stand back up again. So I've been seeing a muscular therapist and am mending well but still in pain. Damn it. I still haven't learned to pace myself-- I'm either all in or...not.

Also, Anastasia wanted me to share her chicken coop plans:





As always-- click for large and legible.

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